The Greater Sudbury Police Service continues to receive pocket dials and unintentional 911 calls. These are a serious threat to public safety and negatively impact police resources, Greater Sudbury Police Service said.
Unfortunately, it's an issue that is still hampering police in their day-to-day duties. Pocket dials happen when a keypad on a mobile device carried in a pocket, purse or backpack is accidentally pressed.
For every unintentional/pocket 911 call received, police must be determined whether an emergency exists. Every second counts when someone is waiting for an emergency communicator to pick up a 911 call and dispatch police, emergency medical services, or fire.
It's easy enough to prevent pocket dials or unintentional 911 calls from happening in the first place. For example:
-Lock the mobile device keypad using the keypad lock feature
-Turn off the 911 auto-dial feature (if it has one)
-Don't program a wireless device to speed or automatically dial 911
-Don't let small children play with the device
If an unintentional call to 911 is made, stay on the line. Every 911 call is taken seriously. When a 911 caller doesn’t respond, that could be a sign of trouble — a possibility an emergency responder can’t ignore.
Users are urged to let the emergency operator know it was a pocket dial/unintentional call. This will eliminate the need for the emergency operator to call back to determine if there is a legitimate emergency, saving precious seconds and allowing them to move on to the next emergency call, according to police.
-Posted by Jenny Jelen
